First Term Paper Outline: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

The Laws of Physics in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

I. Introduction

a. Introduce the film "Cloudy with a Change of Meatballs" (Brief synopsis)

b. Stylized 3D animation

c. Hypothesis: Ironically, although the film's main points are labeled as science, most of points break the laws of physics in distinct ways to create a humorous universe

II. Lack of Overlap and Settle

a. When characters are hit or come to a sudden stop, there is a lack of drag (overlap) of other parts of the body or clothes (12:20),(15:35), (17:45), (58:00)

b. The food items that fall from the sky often land still without breaking apart too much despite the acceleration of speed

III. Character Balance

a. Many objects that characters hold are inbalanced (11:50)

b. The physical structure of many characters, even if they were standing neutrally, would make them fall over

c. To give the film a comical feel, many poses are pushed far beyond what could physically hold them upright (35: 44)

IV. Lack of Gravity

a. Often times characters can jump or be in midair for long distances without taking gravitational pull into account (14:21) (34:24) (36:17)

b. The FLDSMDFR stays in midair without the force affecting it falling (29:03)

c. There is a lack of acceleration/deceleration when things fall (36:17) (36: 23)

V. Competing Hypothesis: Parabolic Arcs

 a. With a good running start, Officer Earl flies in an accurate directional arc forward

 b. The jello room demonstrates a lot of moments when characters jump but fall straight down

c. (1:07) The toast boat goes a very far distance for the amount of jump it had

VI. Conclusion

 a. Other than the three mentioned above, there are many other factors in the film's universe that do   not follow the laws of physics, but I ended up going with ones that seemed to give the film its unique visual look

b. Although the film breaks many laws of physics, it seems to fit with the kind of feel it was going for, thus people buy into it

c. Pushing the animation even beyond physical laws helps it feel more alive